Zimbabwe Datapoints of the Day

Comparing Old Mutual’s share price in London and Harare, Josh Giersch concludes that there are now 35 billion Zimbabwean dollars to one US dollar – up from a mere 17 billion on Friday. Which would put annualized inflation, he says (I haven’t checked his math) at 430,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000%. May as well just round it up to the nearest billion quadrillion quadrillion, at this rate.

Josh also notes that this kind of inflation does very interesting things to past profits. Insurance company NicozDiamond, for instance, wrote total premiums, at today’s exchange rates, of $5,171 in the year to May. I hope they invested them wisely!